Cover Shot! Singletrack Magazine with Camilla Stoddart

Finally someone recognized the beauty in this shot that Camilla Stoddart took a few years back on my last trip to New Zealand. I mean, just ignore the plonker on the bicycle barely holding his shit together and look at the view!

I have no idea what is hawt and what is not, that’s evident because I thought this shot would sell A LOT of calendars, mugs and T-shirts. Even if it failed to launch one thousand ships I was pretty sure it would at least feature in a few magazine gallery sections. But, in turns out, I wouldn’t know a good looking picture if it poked me in the eyes because this shot has taken THREE years to actually be snapped up by a magazine. Wow, that’s a really long time but at least it’s out there in the world at last.

Singletrack Magazine from way up North in England are the ones who the same terrible choice in images that I must have.

Camilla Stoddart is an incredible photographer (I know I have to say that when taking about photographers that I have worked with and want to work with again, but I really really mean it about Camilla) and such an incredibly nice human being that I bet she wouldn’t write some sarcastic blog about how short-sighted all those people that skipped the opportunity to present this image in their magazine/catalogue; no no no, that’s my not-so-funny shtick. Instead, here’s Camilla’s take on the process behind getting the shot.

“I had arranged to shoot at sunrise with Seb Kemp up at Dirt Park in the Cardrona Valley, just outside Wanaka NZ. We left Wanaka in the dark as it was stupidly early, and drove up the access road to the top of the track. Although it was autumn we were mightily surprised to see a fresh dusting of snow on the ground when we got to the top…It was just so beautiful. I was pretty excited to shoot some singletrack in these conditions as the valley looked so magical. I was determined to get a ‘fresh track’ shot of Seb cutting through the snow just as a skier would. So it was a one hit wonder and he nailed it not losing his traction on the slippery fresh snow. You can’t plan for mornings like this, I guess we were just lucky!”

If you want to see the image in it full, folded glory then go by issue 86 of Singletrack Magazine.

Ps. Singletrack is full of lunatics with a fabulous sense of humor. Their Festive Goods Friday videos are a solid example of this. Brilliant.